What is Analysis Paralysis?
Does Analysis Paralysis Impact You?
Do you experience anxiety when choosing between many different options?
Do you find yourself thinking and rethinking about the solution to a problem without taking any actions?
Have you noticed difficulty putting in the actions needed to work through a situation?
Or difficulty knowing where to start to complete tasks?
Does this sound like what you are experiencing? If so, you may be struggling with analysis paralysis.
Anxiety Causes Analysis Paralysis
Analysis paralysis is when a person overthinks about a topic that they become overwhelmed and unable to choose between options. For people with high anxiety levels, analysis paralysis is a real problem that impacts everyday life. It is the habit of thinking and overanalyzing situations to solve them and come up with the best solution.
Overthinking Can Become A Cycle That is Hard to Overcome
It starts to become a cycle. The more you think about solutions, the more anxious you feel. Once the mind feels too overwhelmed by decisions, it gets harder to think through situations alone. The brain can only handle so much stress at one time. It can be exhausting and endless for those who get stuck in this pattern of thinking without acting. The cycle continues with more thought on possible solutions without knowing how to solve the situation. Often, deadlines pass, late fees are charged, and the natural consequences of not acting begin to pile up and add additional stress. The build-up of problems makes it more difficult to complete other tasks, and the cycle continues. Anxiety often increases to the point where it is almost unbearable to work on the problem alone. Many people notice it becomes too overwhelming to even think about the situation without feeling anxious.
Analysis paralysis can be the brain’s way of protecting you from too much stress by pushing off the decision-making. It can be a form of avoidance of tackling the situation head-on. However, the stress and consequences start to weigh down a person’s self-esteem and sense of self-worth over time. Often, people caught in this cycle feel hopeless overwhelmed and have a tough time figuring out what action to take to solve their problems. Often, they have too many things left undone that it is hard even to know what to work on first. The guilt of unfinished tasks starts to weigh on them, and they don’t know where to begin to work toward changing this habit.
If this sounds like you, you are not alone. Many people have analysis paralysis due to high anxiety, which shuts down their executive function. The executive function is the part of the pain that helps us problem solve and use logic to work through solutions. Often the more this cycle has been repeated in a person’s life, the quicker anxiety can overwhelm them. The good news it's possible to work through overthinking and lessen the impact analysis paralysis has on your life.
Anxiety Treatment Can Help You Manage and Overcome Overthinking
The good part is that treatment for anxiety can help by teaching you to learn skills to manage your stress to work through problems without the “paralysis” and overwhelm. Once you can manage the anxiety, you can start creating a new habit of approaching situations and working through them. With time and consistent practice, you can learn to catch anxiety early so you can work through situations and stay in the present moment without activating the overthinking mode. From there, you can work toward having a system in place to solve problems that you can apply to many situations in your life.
